Google Canada executive Leslie Church joins HEQCO board

Leslie Church: New HEQCO board member (CNW Group/Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario)

TORONTO, Nov. 24, 2015 /CNW/ - Leslie Church, head of global communications and public affairs for Google Canada, has been appointed to the board of directors of the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) for a two-year term effective immediately.

Responsible for promoting Canada's digital economy and the success of Canadian innovators online, Church was vice-chair of Ontario's Open Government Engagement Team in 2013-14, providing recommendations on open data, access to information and civic engagement. A long-time advocate for higher education, she was a panel member of the Government of Ontario's "Rae Review" of postsecondary education and served on HEQCO's 2012 Strategic Mandate Agreement expert panel. She has contributed to organizations including the Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation, University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine and the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance. She is a graduate of the London School of Economics and the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law, and practiced law at Torys LLP in Toronto.

"With the exponential growth of digital technology in higher education, Leslie's experience and insight into innovation will be valuable assets to HEQCO," says Alastair Summerlee, chair of HEQCO's board. "We look forward to working with her and benefitting from her unique perspectives."

About the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario HEQCO is an agency of the Government of Ontario, established in 2005 to contribute to the improvement of Ontario's postsecondary education system. HEQCO is mandated to conduct research, evaluate the postsecondary education system and provide policy recommendations to the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities on improving system quality, access and accountability.